HR Professionals Can Help Workers Gain Better Levels Of Health
Perhaps the role of guardian angel isn’t one that most of us would assign to those who work in the field of human resources. However, according to Terrance Ng, head of Human Resources at PetroChina International, because HR professionals are there to encourage workers to take charge of their own healthcare, it might just be the term that best fits.
Human Resources recently posted an interview with Ng on its website just ahead of the upcoming Employee Healthcare Interactive conference to be held in Singapore on October 10th.
Ng believes that because employee health and wellbeing are so important, HR professionals are in a unique position to help workers take care of themselves.
“While HR may take on the role of a guardian angel in providing employees with well-covered medical benefits insurance, regular health screening, and wellness programmes,” Ng told Human Resources online. “The responsibility still falls on employees to be willing, take ownership and take actions to improve their health both physically and mentally.”
Ng believes that being healthy can help make workers happier overall, especially when wellness activities are fun and cater to worker interests so that they are more likely to participate. At PetroChina, the company schedules regular lunch talks to create awareness and to help promote mental wellbeing. The company also issues corporate passes to help strengthen family bonding and holds team-building activities to promote cooperation among team members.
When talking about promoting health awareness, Ng often coined the phrase, ‘Healthy is the new happiness!’ “Being healthy can make a person happy,” Ng said, “but happiness may also lead to better health.”
